Unfortunately, the myth
that Hutchinson bottles are the source of the term "soda pop" is continually perpetuated by those who
reference and cite material from questionable and/or outdated sources.
Here are several recent examples:

“The Hutchinson stopper
bottle was opened by pushing down on the wire loop. The loud popping
sound made by this action is the origin of the term ‘soda pop.’” Coca-Cola
Memorabilia,
The Collector’s Corner, 2001.

“Charles Hutchinson
patented his spring soda-bottle stopper in 1897 (sic)…To open the
bottle, one gave the stopper a swift slap with the palm of the hand. When the gasket pushed through, the pressure release created a distinct
‘pop’ sound, and that’s how carbonated drinks became known as soda pop.”
Soda
Pop! From Miracle Medicine to Pop Culture,Gyvel
Young-Witzel & Michael Karl Witzel, 1998.

“The Hutchinson bottle
was sealed by a rubber gasket held in place by a long, looping wire.
Soda pop got its nickname from the ‘pop’ that resulted when the wire
and stopper were pushed down into the bottle.” Secret
Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made
Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World, Frederick Allen, 1994.

“The industry standard
throughout the late 1880s was the Hutchinson stopper, a cumbersome,
unpredictable seal with an internal rubber disk pulled up into place by
a wire loop. To open the bottle, a consumer knocked the loop down,
releasing the pressure with a sudden ‘pop,’ which gave soda pop its
name.” For
God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Unauthorized History of the Great
American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It, Mark Pendergrast, 1993.

Another often referenced source
of such misinformation is The Coca-Cola Company:

A Coca-Cola Company web
site Collectors Column entry authored by Phil
Mooney, Director of
Coca-Cola’s Archives Department, states "The
Hutchinson bottles derived their names from the metal stopper device
used to seal them. The stopper contained a seal at the neck. To open
the bottle, the consumer punched down on a metal loop in the stopper,
which broke the seal and made a popping sound. That's what gave ‘soda
pop’ its name.”

A classic (pun intended)
example of how misinformation is picked up and spread is the Coca-Cola
Company marketing department repeating this myth in conjunction with the
campaign promoting their hokey "CIRCA 1899 BOTTLE" in late 2007.
Information printed on the cardboard carriers states "The first bottle
to be embossed with our trademark, it had a spring-like stopper that
made a fun popping sound when it opened. That's where the name 'soda
pop' came from."

This is baloney!
I have corresponded with Mr. Mooney about the term "soda pop." He cited
his “source for associating the soda pop term with the Hutchinson bottle
is John J. Riley's book A History of the
American Soft Drink Industry
published by the American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages in 1958.”
After I shared information from several primary sources, Phil responded
“Your research certainly leads us in another direction. I will certainly bear them in mind the next time I address the topic.” While
he ponders correction of their published misinformation, people are
reading and believing his comments and further spreading this myth,
evidence his own company's marketing department! Aaaccckkk!!!

In my opinion, the term "soda pop" originated from the sound made when
externally stoppered bottles were opened, i.e. as their corks were
released. Some researchers even suggest the term pre-dates the bottling
of soda. Consider the following factual sources and decide for
yourself:

“Called on A. Harrison
and found he was at Carlisle, but that we were expected to supper;
excused ourselves on the necessity of eating at the inn; supped there
upon trout and roast foul, drank some most admirable cyder, and a new
manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called
pop, because 'pop goes the cork' when it is drawn, and pop you would go
off too, if you drank too much of it.” Letter penned by English poet
laureate Robert Southey in 1812.

“At the beginning of the
19th century soda water consisted of nothing but water, a little soda,
and sometimes a bit of flavoring. Soon someone thought to force gas
into the water and to keep it there under pressure, the soda water
sparkling and foaming when the pressure is removed and the gas escapes.
The soda was kept under pressure in cylinders that came to be called
‘soda fountains’…the sparkling, popping soda that came out of the
fountains probably was responsible for the name POP for SODA long before
soda was bottled." Facts
on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins,
Robert Hendrickson, 1987.

“SODA POP and SODA
WATER: American men and women were asking for naturally effervescent
‘soda water’ at ‘soda water fountains,’ and ‘soda shops’ in the 1820s.
It was healthy, refreshing, and demonstrated one’s temperance. Such
natural soda water was also called ‘seltzer’ from the German ‘Selterser
Wasser,’ an effervescent mineral water from Nieder Selters, Prussia. It
was joined in 1833 by the new, man-made ‘carbonated water.’ By the mid
1840s people were talking about the new ‘soda counters’ that were being
added to many pharmacies…and about local concoctions of carbonated water
flavored with syrups and fruit juices which many apothecaries had
created as specialties. One of the first two big flavors of the 1840s
used the Simlat plant or other ginger flavoring and was called 'sarsaparilla’ (Spanish ‘zarzaparilla,’ ‘zarza,’ bramble
+ ‘parilla,’ little vine), ‘sarsaparilla soda,’ ‘ginger pop’ (the first
use of the word POP), ‘ginger champagne,’ or even ‘ginger ale’…SODA POP
and a BOTTLE OF POP were still considered somewhat slangy when used by
the flappers and sheiks of the 1920s." I Hear America
Talking,
Stuart Berg Flexner, 1976.

Frederick Marryat, an
Englishman who toured America during the 1830s wrote favorably in A Diary in America
(London, 1839) of “the pleasantness, amenity, and variety of the
potations.” While in New York for Independence Day in 1837, he was
amazed to see the whole length of Broadway lined with booths “loaded
with porter, ale, cider, mead, brandy, wine, ginger-beer, pop,
soda-water, whisky, rum, punch, gin slings, cocktails, mint juleps,
besides many other compounds, to name which nothing but the luxuriance
of American English could invent a word." Drink:
A Social History of America,
Andrew Barr, 1999.

"Flavors were soon added
to seltzers, and such mixtures were called 'soda pop' by the 1840s, but
the word seltzer has continued to mean an unflavored carbonated water to
this day." The
Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink,
John F. Mariani, 1999.

“It is uncertain when
soda fountains arrived on the West Coast, but San Francisco had several
ice cream saloons in the 1850s. Candy-maker H. L. Winn is credited
with opening the first such business in San Francisco, soon after he
arrived in 1849. Winn's Fountain Head served ice cream,
strawberries, oysters, ginger pop, lemon soda, root beer, and
sarsaparilla 'for lovers with their sweethearts and husbands with their
better-halves,' according to a newspaper ad." Sundae Best: A
History of Soda Fountains, Anne Cooper Funderburg, 2002 quoting
Women of the Gold Rush, Elizabeth Margo, 1955.

“By 1859 the number of
plants bottling ‘Mineral Waters and Pop’ had been increased to 123.”
(Source: 1860 United States Census) Organization
in the Soft Drink Industry: A History of the American Bottlers of
Carbonated Beverages,
John J. Riley, 1946.

Note the embossed word
“POP” in the accompanying photos of a beautiful MEHLS / POP & MINERAL
WATERS / ERIE Pa blob top soda bottle. (The photos were graciously
provided by GreedyBay seller “drakes1862” -- thanks, Bruce!)
According to Brent Allred, noted authority on Erie, PA bottles, Mehls
was in business at 61 East 9th Street, Erie, PA, from 1868 until ceasing
operations in 1876, three years prior
to introduction of Hutchinson’s Patent Spring Stopper. Mehls “POP”
bottles utilized cork closures that were either wired down or held in
place with Putnam Swing Stoppers.

Bottler and consumer acceptance of
Hutchinson’s stopper during the 1879–WWI Hutchinson era facilitated
significant soft drink industry growth. This happened in
conjunction with rapid North American industrialization, geographic
expansion, and immigration-fueled population growth. Although
Hutchinson’s Patent Spring Stoppers certainly contributed to the
increased popularity of “soda pop” as a drink, Hutchinson
bottles are not the source of the term.
Please help us kill this myth!